Around five the French worker gets to bunk off (6)
I believe the answer is:
levant
'to bunk off' is the definition.
(to levant is to run away leaving debts unpaid)
'around five the french worker' is the wordplay.
'around' means one lot of letters goes inside another.
'five' becomes 'V' (Roman numeral).
'the french' becomes 'le' ('the' in French).
'worker' becomes 'ant' (worker is a type of ant).
'le'+'ant'='leant'
'v' put within 'leant' is 'LEVANT'.
'gets' is the link.
(Other definitions for levant that I've seen before include "Geographical area of the eastern Mediterranean" , "Area in the Middle East, includes the historic areas of Palestine, Israel and Syria" , "Formerly countries of the eastern Mediterranean" , "Run away with debts" , "strong wind" .)